This week, I was tantalized by a recipe I stumbled upon on The First Mess, a beautiful blog filled with many wholesome and delicious recipes, and wonderful food photography. The thing that really caught my eye, was the word “Old Bay seasoning” in the title of the recipe. Old Bay seasoning has a dear place in my heart, as my boyfriend turned me onto it, and then then I discovered it in my Christmas stocking from him that winter. It is great on roasted potatoes, eggs, beans, and anything with a mild taste (It was originally invented as a crab boil; my boyfriend attests it’s excellent on shellfish as well as chicken).

The photos on the blog were so tantalizing, and I am a sucker for a good veggie burger, plus my friend Stephanie was coming over for dinner this week, and I knew she would love for me to try the recipe out on her.

It is a bit involved. But the directions seemed more complex than the experience making them. Put on some good music, have a lovely beverage to sip on and have fun making these Chickpea & Cauliflower Veggie Patties with Vegan Cashew Lemon Spread. I made some personalizations to the original recipe by adding cayenne and turmeric for added flavor and a healthful boost.

* The original recipe called for 1/4 cup chickpea flour and 3 tablespoons oat flour, with the option to use all chickpea flour – which is what I did. But if you’d like to use 3 tablespoons oat flour, you can easily grind oats in a food processor, vitamix or spice grinder to make it. Also, if you don’t have Old Bay seasonings (I’ve seen it sold at Target and Cost Plus World Market fyi), here is the link to make it yourself!

Preparation:

Steam cauliflower florets in a steamer basket over a pot of shallow water for 7-8 minutes.

Remove and run some cold water over it to stop the cooking process.

Dry the florets lightly and place them in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the “S” blade.

Pulse until you have a meal that clumps together when you squeeze it, trying not to blend up all of the chickpeas.

Put the chickpea and cauliflower mixture into a large bowl, add the chickpea flour and chopped shallots until the ingredients are well mix and the flour is absorbed. Adjust the seasonings accordingly, if needed.

Divide the mix into 4 equal portions and form patties with your hands. (This was my favorite part of not using eggs to form patties – no mess!) Wrap the patties tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

In the meantime, make the cashew lemon spread. In a blender, place the cashews (that have been drained and rinsed), lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, salt, and 2 tablespoons of water.

Blend scraping the sides and adding more water if necessary.

The mixture should be a creamy mayo-like consistency. Place the spread into a container, cover, and refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.

Heat the pan over medium high heat, then lower the heat and add some oil in a pan (I used my cast iron pan, but you can certainly use any non-stick pan).

Place a couple of patties in the pan at a time. Flip to the other side once they are lightly browned (this should take a few minutes on each side. Use your spatula to lift and move the patties as they’re browning, to make sure all the underside gets browned. You may keep the patties warm on a parchment lined baking sheet in the oven on a low temperature. I only made two, and kept my unmade patties wrapped in plastic, until they were ready for eating. You can certainly cook them all up at once and reheat as well.

While the patties were cooking, I quickly warmed up pita bread over a medium flame on the stove. This only takes a few seconds – you just have to keep an eye on the pita so as not to burn it.

The first time I made the patties, I cut one patty in half and one pita in half. The second time I made it, I cut the top third of the pita and put an entire patty in. These are options depending on your appetite! It is a lovely, satiating, satisfying meal. Enjoy!

I spent my late teens and early twenties consuming so much carrot ginger dressing, that my clothing and hair smelled of it. It was served at dirt cheap venues throughout the East Village in Manhattan, where I lived. Eventually, I wanted nothing to do with it. Now, *cough cough* years later, I suddenly got a hankering for it. So, I decided to give making it a try, and I have to say, it tastes much better than I remember! It had a bite, a perfect amount of nuttiness and tartness, and I think I have a favorite newfound/vintage dressing!

Here’s the recipe that inspired me. And here’s what I did, based on my personal taste preference, and the ingredients that I had in my fridge and pantry:

Ingredients:

1 shallot, roughly chopped

1 big chunk of ginger (about an inch)

2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

About 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

About 1 tablespoon sesame oil

About 1/8 cup olive oil

A dash or two of Salt, Pepper and Cayenne Pepper

About 1-2 tablespoons water, to desired consistency

Directions:

Combine all ingredients but the water in a food processor or powerful blender. After everything is blended, add 1 tablespoon water. If you desire a runnier dressing, add another tablespoon of water.

I added the carrot ginger dressing to a salad I made with a couple of chopped radishes, a few slices cherry tomatoes, a chopped Persian cucumber, chopped hard boiled egg, a quarter avocado, sprinkled with crumbled feta cheese and toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

If you feel like skipping the booze and mint milkshakes this year, but still want to give a nod to St. Patrick’s Day, why not make a Green Lemonade! This continues to be my favorite drink. It’s super healthy, filling, thirst quenching and so tasty, and you don’t need a messy juicer to make it!

Here is the original recipe, and I’ve made some updates to the recipe below.

Photo by Kevin Pazminowww.pazminophotography.com

8-12 oz Water or Coconut Water

1 small-medium Apple, peeled and chopped

1 chunk (about 1/2″) Ginger

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

Big bunch of Spinach

About 1/2 cup frozen Pineapple (Trader Joe’s sells frozen chunks)

You can add cucumber, celery, substitute kale, chard, collard greens or romaine lettuce. Hell, throw in some unsweetened coconut, half a banana and make it a smoothie. I’m getting ahead of myself…

Grab your preferred instrument for blending (I used my beloved immersion blender), and rev her up! I love spinach because it pulverizes quite easily. The tougher greens make it more chunky.

If you are equally intimidated by the hard, funny shaped gourds, know that you’re not alone. I didn’t grow up eating or decorating squash or pumpkin, but having lived in the US for over 30 years now, I decided to embrace them as treats and decor, and even tried my hand at my own recipe, featuring an easy to cut one, delicata squash.

I incorporated black beans into my squash stuffing for the protein, and Brussels sprouts and mushrooms for the vegetables. You can certainly customize to your liking. I made them at my boyfriend’s place, and totally forgot to bring over onion, which I think would have deepened the flavors. Three cloves of garlic definitely helped. I also feel it was missing a fresh element. In the future, I may add fresh green onions as garnish, or incorporate a fresh herb into the vegetable sauté, like thyme, and/or make some thyme or green onion infused sour cream to dollop on top. But here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

Two delicata squash, halved and de-seeded

1 onion, chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 can black beans (I like to use Eden beans, because they are cooked with Kombu, for added nutrition)

About 10 oz Shaved Brussels Sprouts (I used a package of shaved sprouts from Trader Joe’s)

A big pinch of fresh herbs of your choice (my choice would be thyme, green onions or chives), chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F. After you’ve halved (with a good, sharp knife) and gutted your squash, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, a bit of salt and a bit of nutmeg.

Place them face down onto a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes. The squash should be a bit browned and caramelized on the edges. Flip the squash over and let cool slightly. Lower oven temp to 350F.

While squash is baking, sauté onions until translucent on medium heat. Add garlic. When garlic is fragrant, after 1-2 minutes, add shaved Brussels sprouts. Sauté until the sprouts start to brown a bit. Add mushrooms and black beans. Make sure to season a bit more with each addition of ingredients. Continue to sauté on a medium-low heat until the squash is out of the oven, and cooled slightly.

Scoop the sautéed veggies into the squash halves. Top with the cut cheddar and shaved Parmeggiano Regiano.

Place stuffed squash into oven and bake for 5 minutes, or until cheese on top has melted.

And here is my second annual hand at pumpkin carving. Mine is the guy with the stitched mouth. We had a great time making these, and roasting the seeds after!

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

PS Don’t forget, November is actually Movember!

During November each year, the organization, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital awareness and funds for men’s health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer initiatives. Let’s raise some awareness and grow them staches, gentlemen!

Wanna know the secret to this homemade tomato sauce?

San Marzano tomatoes. When a friend of mine shared the secret to a great tomato sauce is canned San Marzano tomatoes, I made sure to buy a few cans the next time I was at the store. And after researching basic marinara recipes, I realized that this very simple sauce is very easy to make. I bought fresh basil and parsley at my local farmers market. The fresh herbs really infuse the sauce with a lot of dimension. So here’s what I did:

Add the rest of the ingredients, stir, cover pot and simmer for 20-30 minutes. You can just leave it alone, or stir from time to time and check to see if the flavor is developing. Don’t be afraid to use the salt! The tomatoes love it. Go to town with all of the spices – except the cayenne or red pepper. Just a pinch will do, if you like an extra kick. The spice will continue to deepen as the sauce cooks.

Remove the bay leaf, and use an immersion blender to puree the sauce. Or you can leave it alone if you like a chunky sauce.

Serve with your favorite pasta (Tonight, I made quinoa pasta, which is my favorite gluten-free pasta). Top with fresh basil and freshly grated parmesan. Mangia!

We’re having a heat wave in Southern California, I don’t feel like cooking, and it’s finally Friday. So I thought I’d make some thyme infused lemonade to sip on until the evening hour rolls around, and then I look forward to spiking Mr. Lemonade with Ms. Gin. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

1.5 cups sugar (2 cups if you like it sweet)

1 cup water

About 5-8 sprigs of thyme

2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice (About 5 lemons)

3.5 cups of cold water

Directions:

Boil 1 cup of water in a saucepan. Add the sugar (if you prefer a sweeter lemonade, combine 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water) and the sprigs of thyme. Allow the thyme and sugar mixture come to a boil, for about 30 seconds. Remove the saucepan from the heat and allow it to cool down.

Squeeze juice of 5 lemons in a lemon juicer (or by hand if you’re up for the challenge – just make sure to keep the seeds out). Combine the lemon juice and 3 1/2 cups water with the thyme-sugar water. Refrigerate.

Once the evening hour rolls around, feel free to spike your lemonade with some gin or vodka, or do as I learned from some dear Canadian friends, make beer lemonade – fill up half a glass of light beer (there are a lot of great Summer brews out right now!) and half of the lemonade. Sit back, and inhale the hot air!

I have a very special and rewarding job. I teach cooking to two adorable (future heartbreakers) 13 year old boys. Their enthusiasm for food and trying new ingredients gives me faith in humanity. Ok, maybe not that dramatic, but I love seeing them waft their hands over a pot of soup, inhaling the scents, and sighing excitedly over the aromas. I love how badly one of my boys wants to put cumin into everything. They love cracking eggs, and rolling dough and trying new flavors. On one of our lessons, we cooked lentils, they kept snacking on little fingerfuls of the freshly cooked lentils that were cooling in a colander, excited to discover a new food they hadn’t had yet.

I try to come up with nutritious recipes and dishes that boys their age would eat. While they are certainly more ambitious with their palette than one assumes of the average child and teen, they are still kids, and love pasta and pizza and burgers. My goal has simply been to pack these same dishes with tons of vegetables, and to make the pasta and bread products with whole grain alternatives. Below are some of the dishes that they have prepared in our lessons.

Winter kept most of us wet and some of us very cold. Now as the sun makes its way back into our lives, and the weather warms, most of us are feeling inspired and motivated, and are taking on some spring cleaning, tax paying and exercising outdoors.

Below I posted a gallery of some of the dishes I’ve made in the past that are healthy, nutritious and easy to make. They are here to inspire you to get in your kitchen and make something clean and delicious that nourishes your body and gets you ready for Summer (click on the “i” to read the description).